Protector
by PromptResponse
Summary: Velvet was usually so careful hiding the marks gained from Cardin. When Yatsuhashi catches her tending to her wounds, he has his own way of dealing with things. VelvetXYatsuhashi. BunnyBear. Tortoise and the Hare.


**A/N: Written because I love this pairing. Monty owns RWBY. I own a filthy mind (not that that's relevant)**

As Yatsuhashi approached his team dorm, the first home from classes after lunch, he was planning to meditate for a while before team practise later in the evening. When he opened the door and found Velvet sat on her bed, rubbing healing ointment onto her ears, he knew he had more important things to go. Velvet's eyes opened like she was caught in a set of headlights as the seven-foot tall samurai entered the room, hand in mid-stroke along her ear. Yatsuhashi walked over to the girl's bed and sat down, taking the pot of salve from her and dipping his fingers into it.

"I'll help," he said, leaving no room for argument. The bunny-eared Faunus said nothing as he started to apply more ointment, careful to spread it evenly along her long ears, only nodding with tears still in her eyes.

After he was finished applying the ointment for her, he wiped his hands on a piece of tissue before giving Velvet the salve back.

"Who hurt your ears?" asked Yatsuhashi, voice uncannily deep as he stood up and walked over to the small kettle they were permitted to keep in their room, filling it with water before turning it on.

Velvet was silent as the water boiled except for the occasional sniffle, Yatsuhashi even more so as he readied a cup and placed a teabag inside. When it was ready, he poured the water on, stirring the bag to infuse the water with flavour before removing it and placing it to the side. He gave the cup a quick stir before placing the spoon on the counter and taking the cup of tea over to Velvet. She accepted the drink shakily, taking a small sip before placing it on the side of her bed, wrapping her arms around her knees and hugging them to her chest.

"Are you ready to talk Velvet?"

Velvet put her head down, extending her arms, grasping with her hands. Yatsuhashi moved closer, letting the smaller girl cling to him, tears slowly soaking his uniform shirt.

"I'm just so _weak_," cried Velvet, head not rising from his chest. Yatsuhashi frowned, he was this girl's partner and she was suffering.

"Who did it?" asked Yatsuhashi again, "Or shall I ask Coco and Fox?"

Velvet looked up in fear, clinging to Yatsuhashi's blazer lapels.

"Don't talk to Coco or Fox," she begged.

"Who?" repeated the tall man calmly, face steady.

Velvet let out a puff of air before answering.

"Cardin…"

That was all Yatsuhashi needed, he stood up and walked over to his wardrobe, pulling out his spare combat gear.

"Yatsuhashi! What are you doing?!" yelled Velvet watching as her partner changed into his usual gear, blushing slightly as he revealed his fundoshi before covering it with pants again.

"I'm going to talk to Cardin," replied the samurai, strapping his sword to his back and checking his pauldron was correctly attached. "Wait here, I'll be back before Coco and Fox. Drink your tea, you'll feel better,"

With that, he left dorm room quietly, the rabbit Faunus left to sip quietly at her tea. Her tears started to dry up as the ointment for her ears began to soothe the ache from the pulling.

XxX

"I'm telling you Dove! No way could you get Yang Xiao Long to go out on a date with you!" joked Sky from his bed, pointing at the man in question and laughing.

"Oh yeah, because that's so much funnier than you wanting to take a bounce on Nora Valkyrie," retorted Dove, laying back and enjoying the time they had since they were ditching class.

"Hey guys, shut up. I'm actually trying to read here," said Cardin from a chair at a desk, looking over a book on Faunus biology.

"Sorry Cardin, but seriously, Yang Xiao Long. It's like he _wants_ to die with a smile on his face,"

"Who wouldn't?" asked Russel "I'd like to try Pyrrha Nikos in all honesty,"

"You just want a girl who could break you," quipped Dove, getting a grin in return.

The groups conversation was brought to a screeching halt by a loud thud on their door, followed by another. The team all turned to look at Cardin who had gone back to reading his book. Noticing the silence, he looked up.

"What?" The door knocked again. "It's just someone at the door, probably housekeeping or something,"

They continued to stare at him worriedly.

"Oh you bunch of pussies," moaned Cardin as he got up and walked over to the door, opening it wide and revealing most of Yatsuhashi, his extremities still hidden behind the doorframe. .

"Hello Cardin," said the large man, "May I come in?"

Cardin stared for a moment at the large man, before quickly squeaking "No," and shutting the door before looking at his teammates in fear.

As he signalled them to exit via the window, he heard a crash from behind him as the door was knocked off its hinges, Yatsuhashi's shoulder still cocked from the barge he just performed. Ducking, the samurai entered the room, picked the door up from the floor, having just missed Cardin, and rested it against the doorway.

"I'm sorry Cardin. I insist. Please, take a seat," Yatsuhashi gestured to the seat Cardin had been reading his book in. In stunned silence, Cardin stepped backwards, falling into the indicated chair by accident. "Thank you,"

As the smaller man sat down, Yatsuhashi walked over to the team's kettle, arranging two cups with teabags as he flicked the already full kettle on. He opened some cupboards and found a bag of sugar, taking a spoon and placing two teaspoons in one cup. As the kettle boiled, he simply continued to look at Cardin, his face inexpressive. When the machine started to whistle, he poured the hot water over the tea, being sure to let the tea infuse before stirring the one cup with sugar in it. Removing the teabags, he picked up the cups and turned around.

Yatsuhashi walked over to Cardin, ignoring the rest of the team as they fled to the corner of the room, and sat on the younger man's bed. He handed the sugared cup to Cardin while he set his own on the bedside table, before he placed his elbows on his knees and joined his hands in front of him.

"I was hoping we could talk,"

"About?" edged out Cardin, sipping the sweet black tea cautiously

"Velvet. My partner," explained Yatsuhashi, watching as Cardin's eyebrows shot up at the reference to the rabbit Faunus.

"Oh my god, I didn't know you were her partner!" he sputtered out, attempting to rise from his seat before being stopped by Yatsuhashi's hand on his shoulder.

"Please, we need to talk," said Yatsuhashi,"Why do you bully Velvet? My Velvet?"

"I… uh… I…"

"I won't leave without an answer Cardin," warned Yatsuhashi, his tone changing for the first time since he arrived.

"She's… different," he said weakly, aware of how weak his own excuse was.

"As you are different from me. Or Coco is different from Pyrrha. Why do you not bully anyone else for being different to you?" Yatsuhashi picked up his tea and sipped silently as he waited for a response.

"Well… Velvet's weak,"

"She's proven in combat scenarios to be in the top ten percent of fighters currently attending Beacon. I dismiss your claims that she is 'weak'. I am also stronger than you. Yet I don't bully you, perhaps you can explain this?"

"Then why do I bully her?" asked Cardin desperately, "I don't know then!" The rest of his team were too busy climbing out of the window, taking advantage of the distracted samurai.

"Because she lets you," answered Yatsuhashi, "She fights with her Faunus nature daily, to restrain herself and make her temperament more human-like. That means that she avoids fighting where she doesn't have to kill. Fight or flight is in her blood. And when you pull her ears, you're stopping her from fleeing, and making her fight her urges to kill. Stop forcing her to be your victim or this won't end well for anyone. Beacon will have lost a potential future huntsman, maybe even a huntswoman too. Human and Faunus relations would be set back years if something were to happen. I won't let it."

Cardin was visibly shaken; he'd just been going over the psychology aspect of Faunus in his textbook. Yatsuhashi had condensed a very large chapter in a single spoken warning. He sipped his tea again, trying to find words. He had to admit, the man made an excellent cup of tea.

"Alright… Big guy… I won't bully the rabbit girl anymore,"

"Velvet. Her name is Velvet," Yatsuhashi insisted, "But thank you. I'm glad we were able to work this out amicably,"

The larger man got up, placed his half-finished tea on the bedside table and walked over to the door, noting the rope made of bedsheets leading out of the window idly, before moving the broken door out of the way.

"Hey, wait!"

Yatsuhashi turned around, Cardin stood behind him, palms at his side and facing forwards.

"What would you have done if I hadn't agreed? You don't just come to another teams dorm in full armor to talk."

Yatsuhashi turned around and walked out of the door, shuffling it back into a 'private' position slowly.

"Answer me!"

With a sigh, Yatsuhashi pushed the door to the floor again so he could look Cardin in the eye.

"I would have killed you where you stood; I won't let her suffer for something that's not her fault,"

And with that, Yatsuhashi walked down the corridor towards the stairs leading up to the fourth year dorms, leaving Cardin in his room to consider what had been said.

As Yatsuhashi walked back into his room, he was immediately set upon by Velvet jumping at him, catching him in a hug. He grabbed her as she jumped, noticing she'd changed into her training clothes while he was gone.

"You'd better not have hurt anyone Yatsuhashi," warned Velvet, face buried in the man's chest.

"I wouldn't," calmed the samurai, picking the bunny-girl up in a large hug so they were face to face. She scrunched her nose up slightly before leaning in and giving him a peck on the lips.

"You're always looking out for me, aren't you," she muttered, looking into her partner's eyes.

"I'm your protector, forever and always," replied the man, giving her his own kiss as he closed the door behind them.

**A/N: Short, sweet VelvetXYatsuhashi fluff! I wanted to write it, I wrote it! Might write more if I think of something else to do, I think these two are adorable. **


End file.
